The members of Sub Pop Records’ latest signee Cartel Madras are ready to make their mark.
The explosive sister duo — Eboshi and Contra — defines their group name as, “The powerful juxtaposition of a Western term aimed at ghettoizing other cultures and the English colonial name foisted on Chennai, India” or “A queer, female, Desi act igniting a revolution because they’re sick of this bullshit.”
Together, they make music they have dubbed “goonda rap,” a heady mix of trap with punk, house and South Indian aesthetics.
To celebrate their Sub Pop deal, the Calgary-based Cartel Madras has stepped on the scene with a new video for “Lil Pump Type Beat,” one of the singles from their upcoming Age Of The Goonda EP.
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“We wanted to make a fun trap song that captures the explosive energy of our live shows,” Eboshi and Contra tell HipHopDX. “We also wanted to give a nod to type beats and their ubiquity. Our shows often turn into sweaty mosh pits, so the video had to be an extension of that.
“It was really fun, especially having a ton of shirtless dudes moshing while we dictate the energy in the video from the middle, with the drip.”
As described in a press release, Age of the Goonda is a “manifesto for the times” and “an in-your-face call to arms for those who must resist being treated as underdogs, including immigrants, women of color, the LGBTQ+ community and Desis (a.k.a. Westernized Indians).”
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Eboshi adds, “There’s a certain thing that Hip Hop does, that gangsta rap does: a narrative of being larger than life, kind of violent but in power. We are paying tribute to that, but also focusing that on women who are queer and brown, telling stories that haven’t been told.
“We are speaking to, and about, narratives that are not magnified in popular culture, while paying tribute to the sub-genres that have continuously influenced our sound. That’s what we want goonda rap to become.”
Age Of The Goonda is expected to arrive via Sub Pop and Royal Mountain Records on November 1.
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Until then, check out the “Lil Pump Type Beat” video above.
